Available Formats
The Last Act
By (Author) Brad Parks
Faber & Faber
Faber & Faber
14th March 2019
Main
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
813.6
Paperback
384
Width 153mm, Height 234mm, Spine 26mm
519g
'His best yet ... a roller-coaster plot that serves up endless surprises. Whatever you think is coming next probably isn't.' - Washington Post
Tommy Jump is an out-of-work stage actor approached by the FBI with the role of a lifetime: Go undercover at a federal prison, impersonate a convicted felon, and befriend a fellow inmate, a disgraced banker named Mitchell Dupree who knows the location of documents that can be used to bring down a ruthless drug cartel ... if only he'd tell the FBI where they are.
The women in Tommy's life, his fiancee and mother, tell him he's crazy to even consider taking the part. The cartel has quickly risen to become the largest supplier of crystal meth in America. And it hasn't done it by playing nice. Still, Tommy's acting career has stalled, and the FBI is offering a minimum of $150,000 for a six-month gig - whether he gets the documents or not.
Using a false name and backstory, Tommy enters the low-security prison and begins the process of befriending Dupree. But Tommy soon realises he's underestimated the enormity of his task and the terrifying reach of the cartel. The FBI isn't the only one looking for the documents, and if Tommy doesn't play his role to perfection, it just may be his last act.
Brad Parks is the only author to have won the Shamus, Nero and Lefty awards, three of crime fiction's most prestigious prizes. A former reporter with the Washington Post and the Star-Ledger (Newark), his two most recent novels are the stand-alone thrillers Say Nothing (2017) and Closer Than You Know (2018). He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.